The Dieppe Raid

The Dieppe RaidAugust 1942

Module objective: Guided by both research and inquiry-based questions, students will explore how historians have come to the conclusions they have made about the Dieppe Raid using primary source evidence and accounts.

Intended audience: Grades 10-12​Prior knowledge required: General knowledge of the First and Second World Wars.

Primary HTC addressed: Primary Source Evidence

Secondary HTCs addressed: Historiography; Historical Perspectives

Interested in combining the Lest We Forget project with some activities from this module? Here are links to the service files of two soldiers whose individual stories connect with this module’s topic:

Problem overview

Just after dawn on 19 August 1942 an Allied raiding force of nearly 5000 Canadian soldiers, 1000 British Army Commandos and 50 US Army Rangers backed by substantial Allied naval and air forces landed on German-held beaches at and around the seaside town of Dieppe in northern France. The attack, code-named Operation Jubilee, was not meant as a permanent return to European continent, but a one day raid, the most important intention of which is a matter of debate. Regardless of the intention, the plan depended on mounting a surprise landing under the cover of darkness. Fate denied both and the attacking force stormed beaches in growing daylight defended by an alert German enemy. Historians disagree over some of the dramatic day’s outcomes, but it is clear that 3,367 Canadians were killed, wounded, or captured marking Canada’s worst single day’s loss of the Second World War. Some believe the Dieppe Raid on August 19th 1942 stands as the greatest disaster in Canadian military history. Afterwards, participants and then historians focused inquiry more on determining which leaders were responsible for the losses more than on whether the operation achieved its aims.

Problem background

In the summer of 1942 Soviet forces fought desperately to halt the German offensive towards southern Russia’s vital oilfields. The United States was still mobilizing and overwhelmed by the great Japanese offensive across the Pacific and South Asia that began at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. British and Dominion armies had not fully rebuilt after being forced to abandon France in 1940 and were locked in vicious battle against German and Italian forces in Egypt and against a growing U-Boat offensive in the Atlantic Ocean. That summer the Second World War had entered its darkest days. British and American senior commanders ultimately chose to mount a large single-day raid against the French coast. Goals ranged from diverting German attention off the beleaguered Soviets, testing new amphibious assault equipment and methods probing the German defences on Europe’s Atlantic Coast to more secretive collecting of equipment and technical data about German radar technology and their Enigma wireless coding-machines. The plan also included a few local and immediate tasks of destroying German military installations around Dieppe. Senior Canadian generals volunteered their troops, desperate from waiting three years to get into action, for the mission.

The assault convoys sailing in the darkness towards France bumped into a German naval patrol which both delayed their arrival by critical minutes and alerted the enemy to their presence. German forces were already on high alert because of their concerns that their offensive pressure against Russia might force the Allies to attempt an invasion across the English Channel. German defenders were therefore ready and waiting when the landing craft carrying Canadians touched down at Dieppe beach and nearby Puys. Canadian historians and the available evidence conflict sharply over what happened next. Some accounts suggest that the vital Churchill tanks of the Calgary Regiment failed to cross the stony beach so that Canadian infantrymen became helpless targets with no heavy fire support. Other accounts suggest the loss of surprise cost lives, but that Canadian tankers and engineers knew about the stone beach and successfully climbed half of their tanks over the sea wall to take on German positions ashore. Eye-witness accounts from Canadians later captured, reveal how the tanks and infantry fought effectively, if at too high a cost, against German defenders manning fortified houses and machine gun posts until the evacuation commenced.

The Dieppe Raid aftermath resulted in a series of reports confirming key lessons for future Allied amphibious assaults against Axis held territory, including the need for overwhelming fire support from naval and air forces, more armoured vehicles in the first wave, and the danger of attacking fortified ports. Some argue that many components of Operation Jubilee worked well and were worth repeating, including successful commando landings against long range coast artillery, and effective naval and air protection of the assault convoys crossing the English Channel.

Key questions and debates

The three student activities in this module are designed to address the key questions and debates surrounding the topic, and are framed by the guideposts to historical thinking for each of the historical thinking concepts ​addressed in the module. Activities are intended to be completed in order. Please click below to see an activity overview, guiding questions, and additional topics/questions the teacher may introduce.

Students will create time capsules based on their investigations into the background of the sources they have consulted in Activity #1 and Activity #2.

Culminating activity/assessment

To demonstrate understanding of how historical accounts are created, students will practice corroborating their sources to respond to the following questions:

How could the Dieppe Raid assist in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front?

Did the practical lessons learned at Dieppe enable victory at Normandy?

How many lives lost are worth the lessons learned and the assistance provided to the Soviets?

Based on what they have read, students must answer these questions, considering how their sources confirm or conflict with each other.

Students demonstrating sophisticated thinking will rely on their understanding of the contexts of their sources, rather than personal opinion. Students should also be able to articulate through this module their understanding that historians’ accounts are not objective, rather, they are based on the historian’s background and contemporary context.